As everyone says, the production on Wretch does indeed suck (I wouldn’t call it wretched, but I want you to know I thought of the pun and could’ve used it). Everything’s too low-level, and this can’t rock as hard as it’s trying to.

But you can still feel the energy, and Wretch is Kyuss‘s most straightforward, hard rockin’ album. That’s not necessarily a good thing though because the pop-centric verse-chorus-verse structure of Wretch gets pretty repetitive by the end of this 49-minute album. All of Kyuss’s albums are on the long side, but Wretch is one that certainly has no reason to be. Kyuss should’ve cut 10 minutes from this album, but what ‘cha gonna do?

Still, what can I say? I like pop rock, and Kyuss’s usual lovable dirty aesthetic that I personally adore brings this above what it is to me and I can’t give it less than four stars. Though someone new to Kyuss that wants to understand their significance and hear their best songwriting should start with either Blues for the Red Sun or Kyuss [Welcome to Sky Valley] (their best overall, but emphasizes different traits than Blues for the Red Sun).